University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Promotes Priyanka Amin, MD, to Associate Professor of Psychiatry
We are pleased to announce that Priyanka Amin, MD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Amin earned her MD from the Pitt School of Medicine and remained in Pittsburgh for psychiatry residency training at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH). She joined the Pitt faculty in 2019 as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry.
Dr. Amin is a skilled emergency psychiatrist and a nationally recognized leader and expert in healthcare quality and safety. For the past five years, she has served as medical director of patient safety at WPH, focusing on developing impactful systems and process changes that enhance patient and staff safety. Dr. Amin’s innovations include the creation and implementation of a phone-based intervention for suicidal adults and a novel staff resiliency training course. Beyond WPH, she is a member of the UPMC Presbyterian/Shadyside Medicine Quality & Safety Cabinet, as well as a consultant for the UPMC Systemwide Threat Assessment Response Team. Nationally, Dr. Amin serves as a board member for the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry (AAEP), and as program chair for the AAEP national conference. She serves on the editorial board for the Journal of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry, and as co-chair of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry’s Emergency Psychiatry Special Interest Group.
Dr. Amin is a superb educator and is director of the Patient Safety Quality Improvement course for child and adolescent psychiatry fellows. She serves as the course director and facilitator of Patient Safety Quality Review for physicians and other clinicians, as well as course director of the psychiatry resident Quality & Patient Safety Introduction Course. In addition, Dr. Amin has authored or contributed to multiple training guides for clinicians including Comprehensive Crisis Management for UPMC WPH Advanced Clinicians, Prevention of Workplace Violence in Medical Settings, and Agitation Best Practice Guidelines for Consult-Liaison Psychiatry.
Dr. Amin’s primary clinical service role is in WPH’s Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES), a 24/7 emergency evaluation center. She consistently works the high-intensity evening shifts, and her clinical acumen has been recognized by a UPMC New Physician Excellence in Clinical Care Award and a Patient Safety Education Award. Dr. Amin works frequently with medical students, residents, and fellows, including supervision in the PES. Her teaching innovations include developing a simulation-based training for running codes on call, as well as developing a patient safety & quality improvement resident representation program.
Dr. Amin has published her work in multiple peer-reviewed journals, including a paper in Academic Psychiatry outlining the Department of Psychiatry residency training program’s development of a novel, peer-led intervention to increase residents’ engagement with root cause analysis. In 2023, she contributed to the drafting of an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States regarding intimate partner violence and access to firearms.
“Dr. Amin is an experienced and effective leader, as well as a superb clinician. She has engaged in clinical, teaching, and service activities that reflect an extraordinarily consistent focus on emergency psychiatry, quality of care and staff patient and staff safety. Dr. Amin has already made substantial contributions in these areas on a national level,” said David Lewis, MD (Chair, Department of Psychiatry).
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Amin!